“I’m a Top Producer, Diamond Club Member and three time Award of Excellence recipient!”

Wait, what the hell does that mean?

We Real Estate Agents constantly market ourselves with accreditations, that at least to me, seem dubious and don’t mean anything to the general public. In fact, I have no idea what most of them mean and I am a Real Estate Agent.

Is it better to be a President’s Club Member, a Platinum Agent, Top 10ner, Gold Star Getter, Hall of Famer, or Lifetime Achievement Award winner? Who knows, and frankly, who cares? Every major real estate company gives out various awards for various things. But if these awards don’t mean anything to the public, I don’t understand why they are given out at all.

An award I just heard of today is something called the Gairdner Award and I was curious about what this meant. At first I thought I heard Gardener Award, so I figured it was awarded to the Real Estate Agents who have the nicest petunias or something. I eventually got the spelling right and found out it was actually the Gairdner Award. The Gairdner Awards are most widely known as an “International Award Program for outstanding biomedical research by an individual.” Wow! I was shocked that so many real estate agents were also known for their outstanding achievements in biomedical research. Or, maybe they just hit a sales figure and their company ran out of award names?

Another fun thing is when we agents advertise awards that were earned in years past. Last week I got a business card advertising that they won the Award of Extreme Awesomeness (or something) in 1998. 1998?! Really? You still have this on your business card?

So, here’s a novel idea for my colleagues, rather than advertise an award celebrating yourself to an audience that hasn’t the slightest an idea of what it means, why not try advertising how you can actually help your target market? Perhaps talk about, golly gee, I dunno, tangible things that make you a valuable asset in selling someone’s property. I’m pretty sure simply being a 4-time President’s Club Double Platinum Gairdner Award winner is not going to sell someones house more quickly or for more money.